Mariachi conference paved way for festival partnership

Originally Published by The Star News, March 2016

As Serafin Paredes began to teach in San Diego Unified School District more than 15 years ago, he gradually came up with an idea of working with world-renowned mariachi musicians to help teach and inspire his students. So Paredes decided to build a mariachi conference from scratch, with music instruction and workshops for students.

The first conference was held at San Diego High School with just his own students in attendance. It quickly grew. Trying to keep up with growth during the recent economic recession, Paredes decided to partner with the National City Chamber of Commerce about four years ago in order to keep attracting more students and more high profile mariachis to teach the workshops.

“It’s like anything else. The biggest challenge is raising the money,” Paredes said.

By partnering with the chamber Paredes was able to continue growing the mariachi workshop program as a partner of the National City Mariachi Festival and Competition… Read more at TheStarNews.com